LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - DAY 61 – Friday, 15th May

For once we were not woken up by the wreckers from next-door executing their usual early morning rendition of Concerto Number Umpteen-and-One for drill, hammer and cement mixer.  I set off on my bike ride in relative silence and with thin sunshine.

     I now no longer even make the attempt to cycle all the way along the sea front to the Marina at Port Ginesta, even if the police are not there to enforce the unobtrusive border between Castelldefels and that part of the jurisdiction of Sitges that arches over the hills to take possession of the end of the bay.

     At the other end of Castelldefels the border with Gavà is blocked off with police tape and, while walkers and joggers duck beneath it and ignore it, I deign to flaunt authority in such a blatant manner and I dutifully turn around and come back home.  I have to admit that it really is not much of a burden to obey our locality restrictions, as I am able to cycle the entire length of Castelldefels and so complete a jaunt of 10k.  Which is quite enough for me.  Though I do miss my swim.

As I am an avid devotee of crowd funding sites and am ever beguiled by new technology, I am happy to report that I am now the proud possessor of a ‘cleansebot’.  As opposed to many of my purchases from Indigogo and the like, this particular innovation might actually be regarded as somewhat timely.

     The ‘cleansebot’ is a small side plate sized circular thick Frisbee-like object that incorporates UV light and wheels and is designed to crawl about one’s bed destroying bacteria and other wildlife haunting the savannah of the mattress and the cover sheet.  It can also be used as a hand-held destroyer and can then be utilized to ravage pillow cases, TV remotes, laptop keyboards, kitchen surfaces, light switches, etc.  Given the present concern about cleanliness this little machine could not have arrived at a better time and, more importantly, this is the only purchase of mine from crowd funding about which Toni has expressed approval – rather than throwing his eyes to heaven in exasperation at my ‘waste of money’!

     I have now retrieved the cleansebot from the bed after its sub-blanketian traverse of our sleeping quarters.  I believe that it has made a difference, because there is no way of actually seeing what it has or has not done!  But the real point is that I have another robot to complicate life just a little more, but cleaner, hopefully cleaner.

As the rain held off (and continues to do so) I was able to go on my evening bike ride.  There is a distinct air of determination to the way that people are walking, running and cycling during our period of allowed activity from 8pm.  Given the fact that it was a Friday (thinking of the past days when that actually meant something) there were more people on the Paseo than usual, especially when the weather was as dull as it was.  There were four or five illegal Plague Kids out of their time, but the most illustrative aspect that I note were the growing numbers of young teenage kids in bike gangs which, if you think about it, is as a good way of meeting your friends as any.  And, as long as you don’t get off your bikes, it’s a good way of keeping the necessary physical distancing that we have been advised to maintain.

     Although I joke about the concept of Plague Kids, I really do feel that every young person is a potential viral assassin!  And that attitude is going to take a long time or a quick vaccine to get rid of.

     When we talk about the New Normal, distancing must become the attitude of choice and of necessity.  I wonder how long the attitudes will last though?

In the UK the government is trying to rewrite the narrative of neglect that characterised the situation of Care Homes, it is doing this via nauseating expressions of present concern and a determination to change the approach of government, conveniently forgetting which government has been in power for the last decade!

On a lighter note, our next Catalan lesson is on Monday.  With any reasonable luck there will be more people in our virtual classroom than my good lone self.  We have had to do some homework and presumably that will be the basis of conversation (!) in our next class – assuming that it works.   
     I love technology, as I have mentioned above, but when it is linked to teaching it has an almost inevitable fail factor built in to the whole enterprise.   
     But, as always, I live in hope and positive expectations!

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - DAY 54 – Friday, 8th May

Where does one start? 

     It almost takes me back to what I realize now, were the morally halcyon days of the end of Thirteen Years of Tory Misrule when scandal followed scandal culminating in the heady sexuality (which I must admit I hardly appreciated at my age then) of the Profumo Scandal.  I can still recite the names of the main characters in that sordid grande affaire with salacious relish!  Of course the most notable thing about that particular scandal was that Profumo actually resigned.  A politician resigning!  Ah, those were the days.

     So we come to the present regime in the UK, another Tory regime with a decade of misrule behind it and a bewildering array of ‘resignable’ mistakes connected to the Covid crisis.

     The papers of SAGE have been released to the press but with redacted sections to protect the government’s narrative of ‘following the science’ as if there was a concept of Science that was absolute and beyond political mediation.  Were I a scientist advising the government, this government, I would be very, very concerned because it is fairly obvious that the Tory party is lining up the Science (with a capital ‘S’) to be the fall guy in the inevitable public inquiry.

     Let us continue with the catalogue of contempt.  The care homes situation does not seem to be getting any better.  On the anniversary of the liberation of Mauthausen, it is a cruel irony that the care homes in Europe now appear to have distressing overtones of extermination camps, in spite of the sterling service of care staff who are woefully and disgustingly underpaid, understaffed and under equipped.  How many elderly people have to die before this discredited government accepts its blame and works to ameliorate the situation?

     The continuing numerical farce of the testing seems to be unending and the increasingly discredited Beckett has not, again, accepted that he has failed.  And Beckett is one of the less noxious members of this government, especially when you consider that the organizing brain is the loathsome Cummings, the Marie Antoinette/L’eminence gris de nos jours but with a more vicious take on Marie’s airy dismissal, more of a “Let them die” sort of vibe rather than an invitation to appreciate brioche!

     The numbers of those infected continues to grow and the daily death count is a constant accusation.  One that cannot be avoided by using the amours of a randy professor to try and subvert the news on the day that the death rate became the largest in Europe.

     The comedy of errors that is the ordering and non-delivery and eventual delivery and delay and quality check and rejection and farce and death is something that is so absurd that it couldn’t be made up!

     The latest idiocy can be placed fairly firmly at the feet of the Blond Buffoon who ignoring parliament, decided to announce the easing of some of the lockdown measures.  Unfortunately the right-wing press has hailed the announcement as something of liberation from the tyranny of lockdown deprivation and has geared up the population to expect dramatic ‘freedom’ when the numbers of deaths and infections does not justify anything other than the mildest of loosening.  This weekend is going to be fine and it has a Bank Holiday, so people are going to expect sunbathing, beach visiting and lazing about in parks.  The expectation of more than is likely to be on offer is going to produce tensions that can have fatal consequences.

     Here in Catalonia and Castelldefels, the mere suggestion that there are going to be phases of loosening of lockdown has been enough to inflate expectations and suggest that it might be time to bring on the new normality.

     From my observation the young have comprehensively decided that they are immune to the virus and they are certainly acting as if the virus is only for the old.  I think that the transition from lockdown to anything that is not lockdown is going to be very difficult to bring off, when the younger part of the population thinks it is immune and the other feel that they have done more than enough already and are ready for a little (or a lot) of relaxation.

     It is going to be a rough few days - with worse to follow.

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - DAY 52 – Wednesday, 6th May

I am not, it must be said, a fan of the Blond Buffoon, so I probably did not come to the viewing of PMQs with an open heart and a forgiving attitude.  Be that as it may, I have to say that I have rarely seen a more cringe worthy performance than that of our Prime Minister (sic.) answering questions from the Leader of the Opposition.

     Johnson’s bumbling waffle was an embarrassment, and it was all the more telling because he was bereft of the usual Tory baying to cover up his lazy emptiness.  He is an indolent man, and his shallowness was on pitiful display in this exhibition of his fatuousness.  Starmer destroyed him with the sort of questions to which there is no answer, unless the proven liar changes the habits of a wasted lifetime and actually finds a modicum of veracity and admits guilt for the catastrophe of the management of the Covid crisis.

     It seems almost redundant to say that the number of deaths in the UK is now over 30,000.  30,000 lost lives.  30,000 people dead.  And we are told that we should not jump to international comparisons, even though the government itself produces those comparisons.  We  now have more deaths from Covid-19 than Italy.  We are paramount in Europe with the number of deaths.  Are we supposed to forget that we were told that “deaths under 20k would be a good result”, so we must assume that 30k deaths is a disgusting catastrophe.

     One can go on listing the disasters that this government has ‘managed’: the non-provision of PPE; the whole question of Care Homes; the provision, number, and quality of tests; the lies we have been told; the lack of transparency; the lack of an exit strategy; the slowness of the initial response; the criminal irresponsibility of Johnson in failing to take distancing seriously; the provision of masks for the general population and on, and on.

     It is obvious that we need an independent inquiry now so that this disaster is not repeated.  The process needs to be started immediately and the evidence needs to be gathered as a matter of urgency.  Thirty thousand people have died and it is inevitable that even more will follow them if we do not learn the lessons that can prevent the growth of fatalities.

     The UK is being reported in foreign newspapers with a mixture of astonishment and sorrow and Johnson is regarded as the wrong leader in the wrong place at the wrong time – a watered down version of Trump – and with a cabinet of inadequates: a perfect storm of negatives at the time when the crisis demands the very best.

I continue to go for my bike rides and am joined each time by a whole variety of people who have broken out bikes to take part in our daily Paseo.  There is a certain determination in the exercise that we are taking and few people look as though they are enjoying the experience!

     I miss my daily swim – it gives a shape to my day and it starts it ‘properly’ as I swim at 7 am, then my cup of tea and making notes.  It’s a good start.  I could start my bike ride at 6 am, as our time slot is from 6 to 10, but I am disinclined to do that.  There are limits to my desire to exercise!

Our Catalan lessons have developed, in so far as there is another lesson this Friday in the morning and via Google Meet.  I have not found this system to be one that I get on with, but I am going to try a change of computer and hope for the best for the next attempt!

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - DAY 31 – Wednesday, 15th APRIL

A sign of the times: I went out for my walk around the pool, no sooner had I started by circuits when the pool person appeared to clean the pine needles and add chemicals to the water.  I did not have my mask (he did) so I went back into the house.  Even though social distancing would have been easy, I did not take the chance.  I can tell myself that it was practical, he is using one of those blower things to sweep up the pine needles and you are likely to get a blast of needle-air if you walk anywhere near – but the real motivation for returning home was justified paranoia!

     I feel that I am on the verge of turning into one of those comedic older persons who takes every opportunity to bring in age in the conversation.  As a member of the generation that is now officially ‘at risk’ during the pandemic, my age has become something of a distinguishing mark, perhaps the next step would be to oblige us all to wear a badge so that crowds part in front of us and a respectful distance is maintained by all the Plague Children who frolic with the virus rather than succumb!

I have attempted, and failed, to get a space to have a home delivery from one of our larger supermarkets.  I am registered and I note that a few years ago I actually did have a home delivery: the delivery and the items that I bought are still there for me to see on my account site.  It makes you wonder about the total amount of information that supermarkets actually have on individuals - so much raw material! Countless billions of bits of information about our buying habits!  Best not to think about it too closely.  Anyway, no matter how sophisticated the collection of data might be, the practical problems of getting a timed space to have a delivery means that the likelihood of not having to risk my physical presence in a shop is small.  God alone knows how you actually get a space, but I will persevere, as I much prefer to do our weekly shop remotely than personally!

My Catalan classes have been stopped since the lockdown (just before we were scheduled to have an examination!) and there seemed to be no real prospect of their continuation before the end of the term, both Easter and Summer, but I have had communications that suggest that some form of remote learning could take place.

     There is to be a meeting of ‘delegates’ in a day or so’s time via Google Meet when the arrangements for the Summer Term are presumably going to be considered.  I do not think that I will be interested in any physical meeting or actual classes until the start of the Autumn Term, and I am not convinced that there will be real gains in any virtual classes in the remainder of this year.  But I wait to be persuaded.

     Our classes are highly subsidised and therefore the financial loss is negligible and can be written off easily.  We had to buy two books for the course: we have completed the exercises in one of them and there are still a number of units to be completed in the other.

     It will be interesting to see what the school offers.  I suppose that the teachers will have to offer something to justify their continued salaries, but remote learning is an entirely different form of teaching from the one to which they are accustomed and for it to be achieved successfully there will be a disproportionate amount of work for the teachers to do as well as coping with the inevitable frustration that comes with new technology.

     In the rough and tumble of an ordinary school the most sophisticated piece of technology that has a reasonable chance of survival in a well-used classroom is the Over Head Projector (OHP) – virtually any time that anything more sophisticated is used it leads to frustrated disaster!  There is much to be said for ‘Chalk and Talk’ as the main way of getting a message across!

Life goes on.  This morning I had notification by the Royal Mail of the new issue of stamps on 7^th of April celebrating The Romantic Poets.  Usually the publicity is some time before the date of issue rather than a week afterwards, but it is encouraging to find that the new stamp issues are going ahead.  It is probably a reflection of the amount of automation in the production that we are allowed to get the stamps.  I collect first day covers and I am sure that no human hand actually touches the stamps, envelope and insert until it is actually put through my letterbox!

     The designs by Linda Farquharson are based on linocuts with an extract from a selection of Romantic poets, including John Clare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, Walter Scott, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, Mary Robinson, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, John Keats and Lord Byron.  They form an elegant set and each individual stamp is interesting in its own right – and they look right.  Too often, in my opinion, British stamps try and get too much in what is a tiny space.  I like stamps that make an instant impression and still look like something worth seeing even at a distance when the detail is not clear: these stamps work on both criteria.

     I wonder how many people will actually get to see one of these stamps.  Even in what used to be ‘normal’ times most letters were franked rather than having stamps.  Now, in these ‘abnormal’ times the issuing of a new set of stamps looks like spirited defiance rather than utility.

     Perhaps we should have a special Covid-19 issue with a part of the price going to the NHS.  I will write to the Philatelic Bureau and suggest it.  I wonder if they will reply!

The treatment of old people in Care Homes is rapidly gaining traction in the scandal stakes as the numbers of residents and care workers seem to increase with insufficient care and attention from the government or rather governments as the problem seems to be a common one for Britain and Catalonia.  As usual the cliché that you can judge a society by the way its treats those who are the most at risk seems, yet again, to give our way of life low marks!

     On the other hand I have just returned from my daily trip to the open window of the kitchen to show my appreciation to the front-line staff in the health system and essential services and it is heartening to be part of a chorus of applause!

It appears that Bromo (my name for the PP corrupt ex President of Spain Rajoy) has habitually been breaking lockdown and going for his habitual ‘quick walking’ odd hobby sport outside the house whenever he feels like it.  He has been reported by his neighbours.  Fine the bastard, at least that way we can get some of the money back that his corrupt party stole from us during his disgraceful time in power.

Always a good thing to end with a rant!